How 9 Tanks Beat 50 in a Sandstorm (Desert Storm, 73 Easting)

At four in the afternoon on 26 February 1991, nine American tanks came over a rise in a sandstorm and found an Iraqi tank force dug in behind it. Twenty-three minutes later the fight was over, and the American troop had not lost a man. The Iraqi commander had built a textbook trap: a reverse-slope defense, straight out of the U.S. Army's own manual. This is the trap on a model of the real ground, the fight minute by minute, and why the trap did not close. Then the battle is run again with one thing changed each time. 0:00 Nine tanks and a rise 0:41 The ground and the trap 2:09 The rule, from the 1990 manual 3:21 The approach 4:43 The fight 7:04 Why the trap did not close 8:38 The count 9:09 The battle, run again 10:27 The rule in one line Sources H.R. McMaster, "Eagle Troop at the Battle of 73 Easting" (The Strategy Bridge, 2016), and his filmed interview with the American Veterans Center Stephen Biddle, "Victory Misunderstood: What the Gulf War Tells Us About the Future of Conflict" (International Security, Fall 1996), from the 73 Easting Project of the Institute for Defense Analyses, DARPA and the U.S. Army FM 7-10, The Infantry Rifle Company (Department of the Army, 14 December 1990), paragraph 5-22 The ground is real: radar heights from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, stretched 40 times. Where each vehicle stood is a reconstruction from McMaster's account. Eagle Troop had nine tanks and twelve Bradleys. Counts of Iraqi losses differ, and the video gives two. Music: "Interloper" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Heights: NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Country outlines: Natural Earth. Desert tracks: © OpenStreetMap contributors.